At the same time the love of learning and personal
accomplishments of the second and third Othos and (St.) Henry II. soon
prepared the Imperial Court to become as brilliant as classical
scholarship and artistic skill of the highest class could make it.
The wave of Byzantine influence which had passed over Germany by the
time of Henry II. had immensely benefited the Germans. We notice it
especially in the miniatures of the Gospel-books. The technic is much
more masterly, the painting really methodical in soundly worked
body-colour with a delicate sense of harmony, and showing no longer that
coarse handling and slovenliness of execution that marks some of the
Carolingian miniatures. In the figure a sense of proportion has been
gained, the tendency, perhaps, being rather to excessive tallness, as
compared with the thick-set proportions of the Carolingian work. Again,
expression is improved--the faces are more intellectual--not beautiful
but strong, and quite superior to the utterly expressionless faces of
the Carolingian type.
Take, for example, that fine Missal now at Munich (Cimel. 60--Lat.
4456), in which St. Henry, who is bearded, receives his crown from a
bearded Christ, his arms being upheld by two bishops, Ulrich of Augsburg
and Emmeram of Regensburg, the two great saints of Bavaria.
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